1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a technology for protecting a head suspension assembly of a hard disk drive (HDD) installed in a larger-size general-purpose computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A head suspension assembly (HSA) has been conventionally employed in a hard disk drive (HDD) provided in a main frame or the like to write or read (record or reproduce) information to or from a magnetic disk.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the conventional HSA 10. As shown in FIG. 10, the HSA 10 includes an actuator unit 25 that includes a plurality of suspensions 20 (eight in the example shown in FIG. 10), an actuator block 30, and a coil support 42 that holds a voice coil 41.
A flexible printed circuit (FPC) cable 35 extends to a part of a pivot housing 32 that constitutes the actuator block 30, and an L-connector 36 is attached to an end of the FPC cable 35.
A head clip 50 is provided at front positions of the suspensions 20 to prevent contact among a plurality of magnetic heads 21 (eight in the example shown in FIG. 10) provided on tip ends of the respective suspensions 20 with one another. In the HSA 10 shown in FIG. 10, the magnetic heads 21 provided on the tip ends of the suspensions 20 can record or reproduce information (data) to or from front and rear surfaces of four disks, respectively.
For example, if an operator directly touches the HSA 10 employed in the HDD, flaws such as adhesion of dust and electrostatic discharge (ESD) breakdown may possibly occur. Therefore, it is necessary to take due care of handling and transport of the HSA 10.
As a conventional protecting apparatus for preventing damage and breaking of the HSA of this type during manufacturing or transport, a jig for an HSA (hereinafter, “HSA jig”) is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-174459. The HSA jig is configured so that a spherical protrusion is located between recesses (negative-pressure generating units) of magnetic head sliders opposed to each other. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-174459, even if one of the magnetic head slider strikes against the HSA jig due to vibration, the spherical protrusion of the HSA jig contacts with the negative-pressure generating unit of the respective magnetic head slider. The surface of the magnetic head slider does not, therefore, directly contact with the HSA jig. The damage and breaking of the magnetic head sliders and the like can be thereby prevented.
As another conventional technique, a method of machining an actuator that drives a magnetic head employed in an HDD and a machining jig are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-35098. With the method, one pivot pin is provided using the shaft hole of a carriage, and another pivot pin is provided on the fixed shaft of the mobile coil of an actuator. Moreover, protection plates are attached onto the respective pivot pins. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-35098, deformation and the like of a head arm and the mobile coil can be prevented during machining, and the actuator for the HDD having a stable structure can be manufactured.
However, the conventional techniques related to the HSA protection have the following disadvantages. Despite the measures for protecting the HSA, the problems such as the adhesion of dust to the HSA and the damage and deformation of the suspensions during transport of the HSA still remain unsolved.
Operativity is considerably low if the operator handles the HSA 10 configured in the above manner with one hand. Besides, to transport the HSA 10 to the next operation step, the HSA 10 is done so in an exposed state. This disadvantageously produces the problem of damaging the HSA 10 due to the contact between the actuator unit 25 or the actuator block 30 and the L-connector 36 or the like. Moreover, even if the manufactured HSAs 10 are simply disposed on a predetermined location to store them, the problem of low stability disadvantageously occurs.
Furthermore, to manufacture the HSA 10, the comb-like head clip 50 is attached to the suspensions 20 to prevent the contact among the magnetic heads 21 fixed to the respective suspensions 20. Meanwhile, to manufacture the HSA 10, a cleaning step using cleaning water is performed in the manufacturing process for the HSA 10. The head clip 50 is often, disadvantageously detached from the HSA 10 by water pressure in the middle of the cleaning step. This disadvantageously causes the damage of the magnetic head 21. Moreover, the head clip 50 is possibly detached from the HSA 10 even during transport of the HSA 10. Measures for preventing detachment of the head clip 50 are, therefore, desired.